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Thursday, November 3, 2011

Tommy Bahama Pineapple Caramel Cheesecake - tweaked recipe.

Have you
heard of Tommy Bahama clothing? It's the island-style wear that's pretty darned
expensive but it's all made of beautiful quality material. It's long-lasting. I
like to go into the store and simply touch the clothing to feel the textures.
Have you ever done that? LOL

Well, Tommy
Bahama also has a chain of restaurants. I was lucky enough to be invited to
dinner. Imagine island music (or at least Jimmy Buffet), fruity drinks, palm
trees in pots, rattan furniture. It all puts you in a relaxing mood. Whenever I
go to places like this, I try to drink in all the environment, and if I can,
remember to put that into my writing.

Setting is so
important, isn’t it?

Lucky for me,
the restaurant had a gluten-free menu. Isn't that fabulous! So many places are
getting into the swing of this. PF Chang's, Outback Steakhouse, even Wendy's!
People with allergies are able to eat out again.

But I
digress. At Tommy B's, I had the most delicious gluten-free ribs with blueberry
sauce, and though I'd like to share that recipe, I couldn't snag that one from
the waitress. It will be out in a Tommy B cookbook...not sure of that
publication date, but you can bet I'll track it down. In the meantime, I had a
fabulous dessert, Pineapple Cheesecake with Caramel Sauce, and the chef was
willing to part with the recipe.

Sure he was..because
the recipe was for 100 portions!
LOL.

A couple of
months ago, I shared a soup recipe that I'd seen in the "art" on the
wall at a Chef Prudhomme restaurant in New Orleans. I copied the recipe and went
home and realized it was a recipe for over 100. I narrowed it down to a recipe
for 8 servings, and it worked.

So I decided
to try to do the same for this Tommy Bahama cheesecake. At the restaurant, the
cheesecakes were served in little rounds. The kitchen must have dozens/hundreds
of little cheesecake springform pans. I didn't, so I had to work with my single
springform (that serves 8) and hope it worked. It did. The deliciousness is in
the sauce. Pineapple (which I’ll bet doesn't have to be fresh, though I used
fresh) and caramel.

Now...the
really, really fun part of this is I didn't have eight people to serve it to,
so the cheesecake made a terrific mid-afternoon snack the next day and the next
and the next... Cool, refreshing, and totally delicious.

Enjoy.

Note: the
caramel does get "hard" after it's made, so it must be served right
away or reheated.

Second Note:
This looks difficult to make
but it isn’t. And
not even time consuming until it’s
in the oven. It’s sort
of a dump method. :)

TOMMY BAHAMA'S PINEAPPLE CARAMEL CHEESECAKE

tweaked by Avery

Ingredients:

Topping:

1 cup pineapple diced

1 cup light brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla (or vanillin)

Caramel
sauce:

4 ounces dark
brown sugar

2 tablespoons
water

1 tablespoon
butter

Cheesecake
batter:

1 pound cream
cheese (16 oz)

1 pound
cottage cheese (16 oz)

1 cup white
sugar

2 tablespoons
butter, softened

4 eggs

1/2 cup sour
cream

1 tablespoon
lemon zest

1 tablespoon
vanilla extract (or vanillin)

Directions:

Topping: mix
all together in a saucepan. Toss well and spread thin. Cook on medium low until
caramelized on one side. Toss and caramelize on the other side. (About 5 minutes)
Remove from heat. Cool.

Caramel
sauce:

Heat brown
sugar, water, and butter until sugar dissolves and mixture is at a high boil.
(About 2 minutes) Set aside to cool.

Cheesecake:

Cream the
cheese, sugar, butter. Add the eggs, one at a time until fluffy. Add the sour
cream, zest, and vanilla together. Fold into the mixture, making sure there are
no pockets of cheeses.

Cut a round
of baking paper that matches the bottom of a springform cheesecake mold. Set it
in the bottom of the mold. Spray the sides of the springform pan with Pam spray
(or brush with oil). Pour mixture evenly into the mold.

Set the mold
on a 15 x 9 baking sheet filled with a low level of water. Bake the cake at 300
degrees for 1 and 1/4 hours or until top is tender to the touch (but not hard).
Turn the oven OFF oven. Let the cake STAND IN OVEN for 2 hours.

Remove from
the oven and cool for 30 minutes. [I set the cake into the refrigerator for 2
more hours before assembling.]

Assemble:

Spread the
pineapple topping on the top of the cake. Serve each slice with a drizzle of
the caramel sauce. [Note: the caramel sauce will harden when not warm. If it
hardens, reheat on low-low-low heat until liquid.]

Aloha!

* * *Note, last week, KittCatt (a commenter) won a prize from me, but KC, you never wrote me an email with your mailing address. If I don't hear from you by tomorrow, I'll have to choose another winner. Best, Avery* * *

Quick note: Avery, sent my information for shipping on 10/31/11 and received an email response noting prize was on its way, but saw a request for this info on the blog today? Let me know if you need anything further. Thanks again.

LL: To narrow it down, I looked at another cheesecake recipe I had and the proportions of cheese to sour cream and eggs and tweaked that way. Regarding the pineapple, I divided by 12 from what they had. That seemed to do it.